Katsina, Kwara, Gombe declare holiday for PVC collection

Katsina, Kwara and Gombe State Governments have declared Friday (today) as a public holiday in their respective states to enable civil servants and allied workers to collect their Permanent Voter Cards.

The Director-General, New Media to the Katsina State Governor,, El-Amin Isah, made this announcement in a statement on Wednesday, he said, “The Katsina state government has declared Friday, July 29,2022, a public holiday to enable civil servants in the state register for the Permanent Voter cards.”

The Independent National Election Commission’s Katsina Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Jibrin Zarewa, however told journalists on Thursday that there had been improvement in the number of PVCs collected by residents of the state in recent times.

He said, “As of July 16, 2022, Katsina State was number 23 in the country in registration as against what was obtainable last month.“ Carryover cards from 2019 were 58,178 cards left uncollected and from 2019 leftover cards, we have issued 9,102, and the balance of that is 48,992 out of the overall total number of cards of 3,237,237 for the whole state.”

In Kwara State, the state governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Rafiu Ajakaye, said the state government has declared Friday work-free for civil servants in the state to enable them to register to vote in the next general election.

“His Excellency urges the people of Kwara State, especially the civil servants, to take full advantage of the holiday to perform their civic duty of registering to vote,” the statement said.

Similarly, the Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Yahaya, has also declared Friday as work-free day to enable residents, including civil servants, complete processes of obtaining their PVCs.

The state’s Head of Service, Bappayo Yahaya, announced the governor’s approval in a statement by Yakubu Mamma, explaining that the work-free day would ensure the smooth participation of workers ahead of 2023 elections.

Yahaya’s statement read, “His Excellency, Muhammadu Yahaya (the Executive Governor of Gombe State, has approved Friday, July 29, 2022 as work-free day to enable civil servants and the entire citizens of Gombe State to get registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission.”